The Irish standard., 1887-10-15

ancestors came over? The Geraldines
when they settled long ago in Mallow
Castle did not shut themselves up III
club house, and give themselves airs.
They fraternized with the people, they
made themselves bone Of their bone
and flesh of their flesh; they fought for
them and died with them. And l
wonder which is the nobier field of am
bitiou-which is the most likely to shed
lustre upon Or give stability to an arls-
tocracy the career Of enc Of those old
Geraldines ruling like a king over every
peasant from LstoWel to the Galtee
mountains, OF the career OF the present
head Of the Geraldines, barricaded in
his castle at G rton: composing pam
phlets for the I. l.. 7. IT,, and unable to
return a poor-law guardian for his own
electorcal division? venture to think
that though the present Geraldine is
duke. and the old Geraldines used some
times get head chopped off, most OF
us would prefer to take chance with
the valiant old chiefs who died with
their faces to the fee and with their
clans around them, fighting for their
God and for their native land. If ever
men were petted as leaders, and be-
sought to become leaders Of the Irish
people, it was the Irish gentry. 1t was
one Of the foibles, perhaps one OF the
vices, Of the irish people, their fond
ness and yearning for leaders OF birth
and station. The aristocrats who led
the volunteers OF '822, with the glorious
exception Of Grattan aud half dozen
others, were bigots and rack-renters
who had very little to recommend them
except their volunteer uniform; yet
their popularity knew no bounds.
O'Connell tried to Keep the Catholic
lords and aristocrats IN the van ct the
emancipation movement until his heart
zytss sick Of their coWartlica and mean
ness and sycophancy-they have never
to this day been emancipated in their
souls. The Young Irelaud movement
was very largely movement with arAs-
tocratic aspirations. Mitchell and La
lor, indeed, knew the stuff the Irish
gentry were made Of, but most OF the
generous hearted young men who sang
and spoke in those days did not des-
pair of bringing the gentry into the
National ranks, and building up ma
ton in which the landlord and tenant
would clasp hands and blend as har-
monious4y as orange and green. One
of the most amazing things we learn
from Sir G. G.. Duffy's book, "Four
Years of Irish History is that up to
the very eve OF the revolt Of '4S Smith
O'Brien and some Of his colleagues
nourished the extraordinary deluslon
that the Irish gentry were meditatlng
going over en- masse to the young men
who were counting their pixies and guns
for an insurrection. 1t was O'Brlens
noble fault to believe every one to be
as OPEN hearted and as chivalrous as
himself. He actually wrote letters an
ticipating that the gentry would De
found heading the insurrection at the
very moment when these same gentry
were entreating Dublin Castle to srs-
pend the habeas CORPUS act, ana only
few weeks before his own rrother, Sir
Lucius O'Brien, denounced and dis
owned him as traitor or the floor OF the
House Of Commons. Every opportun-
itv the Irish artstocracy ever got OF
identifying themselves with the people,
Of winning their affections, OF becom-
ing their leaders, they spurned with in
suit and disdain. They repaid their
popularity in the volunteer times by
their murderings and hoggiugs in '9s.
Their answers to all the melting ap-
peals of the orators and singers of
young Ireland was to seize the crops
for the rent while 100000 of people
were dying of famine, and then to ex-
terminate 100000 more Of them be-
tween 1S4s and 1858, when all national
spirit was extinguished. and when the
country lay gasping and helpless at
their feet. Even in our own day. In
the midst OF the angry rush and roar
Of the revolution which their own folly
brought about their ears, the irish
gentry obtained at least three separate
opportunities of harmonizing their in
teresrs with those of the country OF
their birth and the people from whom
they derived their living. It is one of
the most astounding facts in the his
tory OF human faulty that the immedl-
ate proximate cause of the Land League
in the county Mayo was
confederacy Of four of the greatest land
owners in the county-Lord Lucan, Sir
Roger Palmer, Sir Robert Blosse
Lynch and Lord Sligo-to refuse a
wretched abatement of 10 per cent. to a
tenantry on the brink of starvation.
They kept the 10 per cent. and they
founded the Land Lea que.
London hospitals are treating 1850
40 coo Inf EscarIat fever